FINANCIAL IRREGULARITES

THE STORY

Rob, a property manager for a large global construction company managing over 1000 properties in an area of London, contacted PCaW after discovering that his manager, the UK director, had been involved in financial malpractice. Rob had noticed that several of the apartments in one of the developments he was managing remained unsold which was highly unusual. He then discovered that the director’s wife had been letting the properties and keeping the money. Rob estimated they were pocketing up to £80,000 a year. Rob had also heard that there had been some other financial irregularities in UK operations which the company’s overseas division knew about. When Rob confronted them the director’s wife became very aggressive. Rob wanted to contact the overseas division himself to inform them about his concerns so that they could investigate. He contacted PCaW as he was worried about jeopardising his career and wanted advice from us about what protection there was for whistleblowers.

WHAT WE ADVISED

We explained to Rob about what we do and explained how the Public Interest Disclosure Act (PIDA) acts as a failsafe and protects employees and others workers from reprisals for public interest whistleblowing. We advised him that one solution would be for him to contact the overseas division and tell them about his concerns, letting them know that he would be happy to cooperate if they had any further questions. We also suggested that if the overseas director didn’t want to talk to Rob about his concerns then Rob may want to write a simple letter stating his concerns in order for the overseas director to decide whether this was something that required action.

WHAT HAPPENED

Rob agreed that this was a sensible suggestion and thanked us for our help.